Barak Obama Speech in Cairo & Comparisons to MLK

Transformational Leadership Style of leadership in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates a vision to guide the change through inspiration, and executes the change with the commitment of the members of the group.

Transformational Leadership  Individualized Consideration  Intellectual Stimulation  Inspirational Motivation

Transformational Leaders  They identify themselves as change agents.  They are courageous individuals.  They believe in people.  They are value-driven.  They are lifelong learners.  They have the ability to deal with complexity.  They are visionaries.

Obama’s Leadership Style  Find examples from his speech in Cairo to demonstrate his leadership style and his beliefs on what it takes to make change.  Do any of these examples sound like transformational leadership?

Building Consensus  Find examples in the text where Obama is trying to build consensus, and/or point out similarities between seemingly disparate groups to bring people together.  In doing so, does Obama work to create a shared vision?

Cross-Cultural Communication  Find examples in the text to demonstrate Obama’s ability to identify with and/or demonstrate his understanding of other cultures.  What effect does this have on followers?

Lessons Learned from MLK  Find examples in the text that reflect lessons learned from MLK (specifically in “Letters from a Birmingham Jail”) about leadership and creating change.

Similarities with MLK  Martin Luther King, Jr. made his “I have a dream” speech on August 28, years later, to the day, Barak Obama made his acceptance speech as the first African-American president of the United States.